Cuba Detaining More Dissidents, Says Human Rights Group

Las Damas de Blanco, translated to The Ladies in White, an opposition group, hold flowers and pictures of their late leader Laura Pollan as they march during their weekly anti-government protest in Havana January 4, 2015.
ENRIQUE DE LA OSA / Reuters

Jan. 5, 2015 / 8:17 PM GMT

The Cuban government has increased its temporary detentions of dissidents and political activists, says an independent Cuban human rights group.

Elizardo Sanchez of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation says the group has recorded 8,899 short-term detentions of dissidents and activists in 2014 - about 2,000 more than 2013 four times as many as in 2010.

The detentions don't lead to prison time, though they can last for a few hours or a few days, and some people have been detained several times in a month.

The group said there are less than half the people that about 90 people imprisoned in Cuba for political reasons, which is less than half the number of 5 years ago.